| Source: autosport.com |
Lotus boss Eric Boullier has apologised for the radio exchange between Kimi Raikkonen and Alan Permane during the Indian Grand Prix. (Listen here.)
The team’s trackside operations director Permane told Raikkonen to “move out of the ****ing way” as the Finn struggled for pace with worn tyres while team-mate Romain Grosjean was right behind him.
In his first passing attempt, Grosjean had to go off track to avoid contact.
Raikkonen responded on the radio with another profanity before Grosjean, under pressure from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, passed him on his way to third place.
Lotus said after the race that it would discuss Raikkonen’s defiance.
On Monday, Boullier said the radio exchange had been inappropriate and that he will make sure it is not repeated.
“Romain was two seconds per lap faster than Kimi at that time, so it was not even a team order,” said Boullier.
“By asking Kimi to let Romain pass, we just made the obvious choice, as Massa could have stolen our podium.
“With hindsight, this radio message could have been sent in a less emotional way.
“There was a lot of tension, a lot of potential technical problems, and some of the words that flew around were simply not appropriate.
“I know that quite a few people were surprised and I can only apologise for that on behalf of the team. It won’t happen again.”
FUCK ISRAEL 
Good to hear, I think plenty of people wrote them an email regarding how inappropriate it was, the way they handled it. Considering past two years even if emotions are high, they need to be better if they are to be top team.
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Tensions among teammates are common (alonso vs hamilton), even drivers with an attitude is not hard to find. But I hardly ever see such inappropiate tension among so called superiors (parmane) and subordinates (kimi), and even worse done in open air. Team leaders are there to protect and guide their institution as well as employees, how they treated Kimi is very unprofesional.
I saw Parmane’s comments on utube that it was Kimi’s call/decision to go long on the second set of tyres and he added that RG’s engine was overheating and had to turn things down (don’t have the facts, but I doubt this- RG was running very fast towards Kimi and I think he drove normally) anyway, once nico passed Kimi, it would have been wise for the team to advise/warn Kimi that RG was coming fast and should not be block, instead they cause those “silly” words. How they couldn’t anticipate an obvious thing is beyond me (20 laps without brakes and 50+ something of warn tyres and losing almost 2 seconds per lap)
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It would be more to the point if Alan Permane had the grace to apologise to Kimi Raikkonen himself. Since Kimi signed for Ferrari, Lotus has treated him with total disrespect and seem to have forgotten the wins, podiums and points he has produced for what used to be (and will be again) a midfield team.
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